Tsimmes With Beets Turnips And Beef Recipes

Tsimmes is a medieval German Jewish holiday beef stew that spread with the Jews to Eastern Europe. It was originally made with carrots and turnips, then when potatoes came to the Old World, they were added. When the dish came to the New World, sweet potatoes often replaces the white potatoes. Now I've tweaked it to my taste: I substitute the yellow yams or sweet potatoes with the white Japanese sweet potatoes that I love. I use flanken, a cut of short ribs found at kosher butchers, but any cut of short ribs will do, as will beef stew meat. I keep the bones in for flavor - and add a bay leaf for the same reason - and, rather than skimming the fat as it cooks, I simply put the stew pot in the refrigerator overnight so I can easily remove the hardened fat the next day. (A generation or two before me, cooks would have saved that fat for cooking and baking.) Instead of adding a little matzo meal to thicken the broth, I find no need for that, especially if I reduce the sauce a little before serving. I add pitted prunes, which are sweet enough to eliminate the need for brown sugar or honey and, at the end, I add parsley for color.

Provided by Joan Nathan

Categories     dinner, meat, soups and stews, vegetables, main course

Time 11h

Yield 6 to 8 servings

Number Of Ingredients 9

• Ingredients

The following _tsimmes_ with beets, turnips, carrots, and meat came from Vilna to Brooklyn earlier in this century. When I make this for my family I do not tell the children that it includes beets and turnips. For some unknown reason they never ask me how the dish became so red. They love it.

Provided by Joan Nathan

Yield Yield: 6 to 8 servings (M)

Number Of Ingredients 11

• Ingredients